Capturing people’s inner soles

A new exhibition by East Midlands-based photographer Michelle Walsh has opened.

Come Back To Where You Are can be seen at New Art Exchange, Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham, until September 14.

For the collection Michelle engaged 60 local people already involved in contemplative practice and photographed them directly after meditation, prayer, yoga, or devotional song.

The resulting exhibition seeks to explore if the shift in conscious experience, frequently described as a result of such contemplative practices, can be rendered visible in a photograph.

Michelle said all subjects engaged with the camera in a totally different way to what they were used to.

She said: “They stood with eyes closed in front of the camera and reconnected to the heart of the particular practice they had just engaged in.

When they felt present and centred, able to maintain their attention focused inward rather than projected out to the camera, they would open their eyes and look at the lens.

“Once their eyes were opened I captured their portrait instantaneously.

One piece featured Gulmira who was captured after contemplating on the theme of love.

The 12 photographic portraits are complimented with video works documenting two Buddhist monks sinking into meditation